mittimus

American  

[mit-uh-muhs] / ˈmɪt ə məs /

noun

Law.

• mittimuses
  plural

1. a warrant of commitment to prison.

2. a writ for removing a suit or a record from one court to another.

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mittimus British  

/ ˈmɪtɪməs /

noun

1. law a warrant of commitment to prison or a command to a jailer directing him to hold someone in prison

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• mittimuses
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of mittimus

1400–50; late Middle English < Latin: we send, first word of such a writ; see remit

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mittimus mittimuses

All, all contraband.—Worthy magistrate, if you would hold the scales of Justice with an even hand, make out one more mittimus before you sit down to table.

From The King's Own by Frederick Marryat

In short, there was no remedy; the mittimus was made out, and poor Clinker sent to prison in a hackney-coach, guarded by the constable, and accompanied by your humble servant.

From The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by T. (Tobias) Smollett

Make his mittimus to the Hole at Newgate.

From A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume 14 of 15 by Robert Dodsley

A mittimus, or justice of the peace's warrant,   for the commitment of a rogue.

From 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose

I shou'dn't wonder if the scoundrel call'd for my clerk, and sign'd my mittimus.

From John Bull The Englishman's Fireside: A Comedy, in Five Acts by George Colman

And divers mittimuses were made, but none of them would hold; for still, when they came to be read, we found such flaws in them as made him throw them aside, and write more.

From The History of Thomas Ellwood Written By Himself by Thomas Ellwood

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